Earlier this month, Facebook announced a new redesign for Facebook Pages. The changes began rolling out, but the company has been telling Page admins that they can get on a waiting list for the new design. It’s rare that Facebook ever rolls out major changes quickly.

The new layout essentially puts all posts in one column on the right, and displays things like business info, photos and videos on the left. Here’s what it looks like:

The new design also includes a “Pages to Watch” feature, which lets you monitor what your competitors are doing with their Pages.

On Monday, Facebook put up a blog post answering the “top 5 questions” about the update, which are: What info will appear in the left-side column?; Where will my apps appear?; Where can I view messages?; Will other Pages know I’ve added them to my Pages to Watch list?; and When will I have access to the update design for Pages?

Facebook specified a bit more what Pages can expect to find in the left column. The business info (like a map, phone number, business hours, likes, visits, etc.), videos and photos will appear for brick-and-mortar businesses. Reviews, posts to your Page and Pages your Page likes will also appear there.

For businesses operating primarily online, the column will show likes, info about the business, apps (if relevant), photos, videos, posts to Page and the Pages your Page likes.

Admins will be able to rearrange the order in which any of this stuff appears, which is nice. In addition to the left-hand column, apps can appear in the top navigation menu, and admins can also rearrange the order of those.

Pages with messages activated can view them in the Activity tab at the top of the Page, and in the This Week box on the right side.

As far as other Pages knowing if you add them to your “Pages to Watch” list, Facebook does notify them that they’ve been added to another Page’s watch list, but it doesn’t specify which Page added them. In other words, they’ll know somebody added them, but they won’t know it was you (unless they figure it out on their own). If you only have one real competitor, it will probably be fairly obvious.

Facebook says the new design has rolled out to a small number of Pages so far, and that the rollout will continue over the next several weeks.

Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any features aimed at helping your organic reach, which is due to plummet even further.

Images via Facebook